Significant Earthquakes, 1965-2016

  An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those that are so weak that they cannot be felt, to those violent enough to propel objects and people into the air, damage critical infrastructure, and wreak destruction across entire cities. The seismic activity of an area is the frequency, type, and size of earthquakes experienced over a particular time period. The seismicity at a particular location in the Earth is the average rate of seismic energy release per unit volume. The word tremor is also used for non-earthquake seismic rumbling.

  The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) determines the location and size of all significant earthquakes that occur worldwide and disseminates this information immediately to national and international agencies, scientists, critical facilities, and the general public. The NEIC compiles and provides to scientists and to the public an extensive seismic database that serves as a foundation for scientific research through the operation of modern digital national and global seismograph networks and cooperative international agreements. The NEIC is the national data center and archive for earthquake information.

This dataset includes a record of the date, time, location, depth, magnitude, and source of every earthquake with a reported magnitude 5.5 or higher since 1965.